The Swear chart...Large families and the problems with older kids language...

Rude language in this day and age is more widely accepted than it was when I was a teenager and is definately more accepted than when my mother was a teenager...Some don't think this is right and some don't think it is wrong...But no matter what is our opinion on this it is happening...As much as we tell our kids not to use this language and punish them if they do...We can not be there twenty four seven...The kids will swear at school and I think the way it does flow off their tongues accidently at home shows they do use it away from the home...I personally do not agree with it and wish my children did not swear but unfortunately they do and I am not dellusional about this at all...

I think my main problem is with this is the fact that my kids will do this out of my earshot as well meaning they will do it at home...Tonight we had a family meeting to discuss this and explain this to my kids and the reasons we know they are and the reasons we don't want them to...

As most of you are aware I have a large family and that means my kids range from almost 17 in less than a month to just turned 2...Recently my 2 year old has been using some language that is not appropriate for his age or for any childs age at all for that fact...

This was one of the reasons a family meeting was called and the reason why we told our kids we are aware they are using this language arounf the little ones...What we did tonight is we told the teens that they had a childhood that didnt consist of them getting into trouble for always using inappropriate language as the little ones in our house are...They enjoyed growing up slowly without the words being used arounf them regularly so why couldn't Shy Nikki and Corrie have the same respect...Why couldn't they enjoy their childhood for a long time like they did? this seemed to stump the kids...They didn't realise just what they were doing to the little ones and the fact they were parroting them as little ones do...

We have recently started a new thing in our home called a swear chart...When the pocket money is handed out it is minus any deductions for slip ups in my home...This is our second week and this seems to be working  a fair bit lately...Nothing worse than a teen getting their allowance and seeing how much they have lost because inappropriate words have been used by them...No one to blame but themselves...They know this and after tonights meeting they have now promised they will think a little more when they are at home...

I am not telling you that this will work 100% but it is definately cutting things down here thats for sure...Telling your kids to not swear at all is just not going to cut it...You can try but its not going to always work...

These are just my thoughts and feelings on this subject that I wanted to share...

Have a great swear free day (or I will fine you LOL)
Cheers
Angie